By Asa Wahlquist, Convenor, Bays and Foreshores Subcommittee, from Bulletin 1/2026 (March)

The Balmain side of both Rozelle Bay and White Bay could be lined with apartment buildings under plans the State Government is understood to be considering.

The plans would not only affect the nature and amenity of the area, they would also mean pushing out Sydney’s last remnant of a working harbour, ending over 150 years of the bays’ vital contribution to Sydney’s maritime supply and economy. The impacts would be as diverse as increasing the prices of building materials, making the Sydney Heritage Fleet homeless and affecting the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

The State Government has been considering plans for the large state-owned area called Bays West, that extends from the Rozelle Parklands to White Bay, for over a decade.

A view of the Bays West area showing a possible hybrid model which would include extensive development but retain some aspects of a working harbour. Glebe and Bicentennial Park are on the left. (Source: Sydney’s Working Port Coalition)

The area around the White Bay Power station will be the first stage of development with plans for a Metro station, buildings ranging from four to 25 storeys and 4.16 hectares of open space. The Government’s Bays West website states that ‘Stage 1 of the precinct was always envisaged to have a comparatively low residential land use component compared to later stages – currently up to about 250 dwellings.’

Earlier discussions about the Bays West development always envisaged the working port remaining alongside new housing. While plans for the remainder of the area have not been released, it is understood the more recent pressure on the state government to increase housing, as well as budgetary pressures, will mean more housing at the expense of the working harbour.

A view of the Bays West area showing a possible hybrid model which would include extensive development but retain some aspects of a working harbour. Glebe and Bicentennial Park are on the left. (Source: Sydney’s Working Port Coalition)

Thirty of the potentially affected businesses and interest groups have formed the Sydney’s Working Port Coalition to fight to save Sydney’s last working port. The groups include Svitzer, which operates tugs and provides a range of critical maritime services; the Maritime Union of Australia; and SMC Marine (which supplied and installed the steel piles for the new Sydney Fish Market) and the Sydney Fish Market itself.

The Coalition argues the state would be more than half a billion dollars worse off if the port is closed. It describes the port as ‘the last remaining deep water-land interface port in Sydney Harbour’. In other words, there is nowhere else in Sydney Harbour for the current occupants to go.

The silos that were originally built to receive grain delivered from the country by rail, now hold 40% of the cement and 100% of the gypsum (for plasterboard) used by Sydney’s construction industry, and 60% of Sydney’s food-grade sugar. If cement and gypsum can’t be offloaded at White Bay, they would instead have to come via Port Kembla and then be trucked to Sydney. The Coalition estimates that this would lead to a 50% increase in gypsum and cement prices–somewhat of an own-goal for a state government wanting to increase housing supply–and a 140% increase in sugar prices, not to mention the environmental cost of 226,000 additional trucks slogging up Mount Ousley every year.

The Coalition is arguing for a hybrid model, retaining the port’s operations and berths, and clustering residential, commercial and community uses around the White Bay Power Station and Metro precinct. It argues 3,000 new dwellings could be delivered, along with improved open space and the continuance of the working harbour.

The approved plans for the former Fish Market site on Blackwattle Bay might give some clues to what could happen on the northern shores of the bays. Despite strong community opposition, the former Fish Market site will be overdeveloped with buildings ranging from six to 35 storeys housing 1,200 apartments, a population of 2,400 residents, and businesses catering for 5,600 new jobs.

The bays around Glebe have undergone many changes over the past 250 years. Much, particularly our indigenous history, has been lost in the process. Will our maritime heritage, the working harbour that brought so much employment and wealth to the area, be the next casualty?

Update: Since this article’s publication, the Government has announced the plans will go ahead.